All posts by Rachel Simpson

Why SEO your website?

Why SEO your website?

I remember reading a quote around 8 years ago, sadly I cannot remember where but it went something like this;

“Submission prior to Optimization is much like entering a motorcycle race with a bicycle.”

It was a neat way to sum up why any website needs to be optimised for search engine performance and considering that the number of sites now available on the Internet has grown a hundredfold since this quote, it becomes more relevant today.

Imagine if you opened a shop. Your shop is not on the main drag of the high street and so won’t have high incidental footfall. Therefore would your shop survive without finding a way of telling people it is there? Probably not.

Having a website is exactly the same. Simply to build a fancy website with all your information clearly displayed is not enough to get traffic to pass through it. Submitting that site to a search engine without any optimisation will leave it flagging on page forty, along with the clumps of tumbleweed whistling down the list. Nobody goes there, nobody cares what’s on page forty. Indeed no-one really cares what’s on page four of the results pages – if it isn’t in the first three pages of listings it may as well not be there at all. [more]

You have to provide a way for your website to hold its hand up in the air and shout; “I have what you are looking for”. You must give the search engines a way to spot your website in a vast crowd, as one that offers the very thing that their customer has just typed into its search box. And the only way to do that is by SEO. Search Engine Optimisation – by someone who understands how it works.

Having said that, SEO is not rocket science and there is no need to be intimidated by People Who Know – because there are optimisation companies out there who make outrageous promises in the hopes of taking advantage of people who don’t really know. Here are some of my ‘favourites’;

We can get you to the top of the listings in Google. 

We guarantee thousands of hits for your website.

We will ensure hundreds of links coming into your site.

Sounds good doesn’t it? Over the years many of my clients have nearly fallen for such glowing promises of these agencies, but all it takes is to point out what’s not being said. The top of Google for what search term and for how long? Hits are okay but what about actual visitors? Will those links be reciprocal and/or produced via software (neither of which are taken into consideration by Google)? Suddenly the holes start to appear and you begin to feel as if this company is trying to hoodwink you – and they are! Do not spend your money with them.

However, there are many very good Search Engine Optimisers out there, just be sure you employ a reputable one. Look for recommendations and reasonable goals for your site. Finding a company that uses what is becoming known as White Hat tactics – tactics that fall within the rules and are honest ways of promoting your website – and you’ll be fine. 

Better still learn to do it yourself. There is no-one who knows your business and website better than you, and you are in the best position to research and learn what your potential customers are typing into Google, for example, to look for a company like yours. There is no mystery to optimizing your pages, there is a lot of free direction and support on the Internet, and a little effort into your SEO will pay dividends in terms of your website’s visibility once you have released it into the ether.

If you would like an article on the basics of SEO then let us know and we’ll get one online for you on the Web Publishing Portal.